“Great. Let me just get my setup ready, and I’ll be right back.”
I relaxed and looked out the window into the forest, where a doe looked out at me for a split second, then ran back off into the woods. When Sirona came back a couple of moments later, I asked her about it.
“How do the woods work, with the window?”
“It’s magic, as I’m sure you’ve figured out. The woods are an image that’s projected onto the walls, but it is from a real place, a part of the forest about a six-hour hike outside of Sapphire Village, if there was a trail there.”
“So we’re not likely to come across any hikers relieving themselves in the woods and looking through the window?” I asked, and Sirona laughed, a deep laugh from her core.
“No, that would be rather unlikely. The part of the forest I’ve captured here is very far from any trail; I believe these woods have never been trod on by any non-animal creature save for myself. And you also don’t have to worry, if by some sort of miracle someone did manage to make it here, they wouldn’t know that Butternut is even here, they can’t see into the property at all.”
I smiled. “Your home’s name is Butternut?”
“It is, for obvious reasons. Now, I want you to lie down and relax, I’m going to get the needles ready. I’d like to use four of them, if that’s all right.”
“Sure,” I said, relaxing back down on the mattress. I glanced over at Sirona, curious as to what the needles she was about to use looked like. She pulled out a huge needle–at least a foot long, and the same thickness as a pen.
I let out a yelp and sat up. “Nope! Nope, nope, nope! Absolutely not!”
“What’s wrong?” Sirona asked, the torture instrument still in her hand.
“That’s not an acupuncture needle, that’s a knitting needle!” I practically shouted. “You are not, in any universe, stabbing me in the back with that.”
Sirona looked at the needle, a slightly confused expression on her face. “I’m not sure I understand, this is a normal magical acupuncture needle.”
“Acupuncture needles are supposed to be tiny, like an IV needle or something!” I said. “That’s the sort of thing my grandmother would use to scare me into behaving as a child.”
“I swear to you, it won’t hurt,” Sirona said to me. “You’re welcome to skip it, but it’s an enchanted needle. It won’t hurt you. You can ask your cousin if you’d like.”
The mention of Cat gave me pause: I could imagine her laughing at me if I didn’t go through with this. On the other hand, I could also imagine her standing over my lifeless body, knitting needles sticking out of my back like a life-sized voodoo doll, wondering what could have gone wrong.
“You swear it won’t hurt?” I asked Sirona, who nodded.
“I swear. It might feel a little bit uncomfortable, but pain is not something you will feel.”
“Is that because the first stab is designed to be deadly?” I asked, only half-joking, and she smiled reassuringly at me.
“Don’t worry. I promise you, it will be fine. I’m not going to murder you, it wouldn’t be great for business.”
I supposed Sirona had a point. Pun definitely not intended. But if she murdered all of her patients, she’d probably run out of them pretty quickly.
“Fine,” I said, lying down on the table once again. I was noticeably tenser this time around, my fingers clenched into fists as I worried about what was going to happen.
“Relax,” Sirona said in a calm voice, passing her frigid hands over my back once more. Almost involuntarily my back muscles loosened, and I found myself relaxing despite myself. “The more you relax, the less this is going to hurt,” she said.
“Well that’s pretty counter-intuitive,” I muttered.
“Look outside the window and enjoy the view,” Sirona said, and I did as she asked. Sure enough, the gorgeous, natural scene did make me feel a little bit better.
“I’m going to put the first needle in now,” Sirona said in a voice barely louder than a whisper, and I felt the tiniest little poke, but nothing else. There was no searing pain, no feeling of impending death. I could feel the needle inside of me, but it didn’t hurt at all.
About five seconds later I felt Sirona pull the needle out. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
“No, it wasn’t,” I admitted.
“Ready for the second one?”
This time I relaxed on my own, realizing that magical healing had a lot of advantages. After four needles, Sirona asked me to sit up slowly, and she repeated the exercises where she touched my back while I bent over in different directions.
To my surprise, not only was the pain gone, but I felt like one of those air dancers you see in front of car dealerships. I had more mobility in my back than I’d had in years.
“Wow,” I said as I moved around. “That’s amazing!”
“Yes,” Sirona said. “I’m glad you’re happy. It’s incredibly important to take care of your back. A lot of the time, issues with other parts of the body stem from an imbalance in the back, but people never think of it because their back doesn’t hurt. But, like with a lot of things, they focus too much on what’s obvious–the part of their body that hurts–without taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture.”
“Well, I promise, if I ever hurt myself again, I’ll be coming back to you,” I said. “Now how much do I owe you?”
Sirona waved my hand away. “Oh, nothing. Cat already took care of that.”
I made a mental note to thank my cousin as Sirona pulled back the privacy curtain. “Well, thanks again,” I said as I made my way out into the large, open space.
Sirona smiled. “I’m just happy you were willing to put aside your fear and go through with the acupuncture. It really did make a difference.”
“Oh, I know,” I replied. I felt like I could do one of those super-hard yoga poses right now. Cat stood up from the table where she was drinking a cup of tea and a magazine and grinned.
“How’d it go?”
“Great!” I replied. “My back feels amazing.”
“Told you so!” Cat said. “Thanks Sirona. I’ll see you soon.”
“Of course. It was nice to see you both,” Sirona said as she opened the door and let us back out into the streets of Brixton Road.
“See? I told you she wasn’t going to murder you or anything,” Cat told me as we made our way back toward the portals.
“You were right. Though when I saw the knitting-needle sized acupuncture needles I had my doubts. Why didn’t you warn me about those?”
“What, and miss the fun of your reaction?” Cat grinned, and I hit her in the arm.
“It’s interesting what she says about the back being key to everything, though,” I mused. Suddenly, I stopped.
“What is it?”
“The words she said… we get too focused on the obvious, without taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture.”
“Yeah, so?” Cat asked, shrugging.
“I don’t know yet,” I said slowly, as the gears in my brain began to grind together. What If I had been too focused on the obvious? What if I needed to take a step back and look at things in a new perspective?
“Are we going back home, or should I just leave you standing here in the street looking like a crazy person?” Cat asked after a few minutes, and I snapped out of it. Everything made sense now.
“I know who killed Sapphire Sam,” I said in almost a whisper.
Chapter 20
“Who was it?” Cat asked as we made it to the portals.
“We have to go see him,” I replied. “He might be working at his shop.”
Five minutes later we were standing in front of Pete’s Cycles.
“Wait, this is where Sally Wentworth worked, right?”
I nodded. “Sapphire Sam spent the evening he was killed looking through the windows of various businesses down the street, I have lots of people who can attest to that. So I always assumed that when Sally Wentworth disappeare
d, that he looked in and saw her doing something related to the bike thefts. But what if it was the other way around? What if Sally was a victim? I’m sure now that Sapphire Sam looked in through the window and saw Peter killing Sally. After all, I always thought there was something weird about how quickly Sally left. She had left her laptop behind. Who would do that? Even if you’re leaving in a rush, you’re still going to take all your important stuff, more than just your phone and your purse.”
“But why would the guy kill his employee?”
“Because Peter was the man who ran away from us, who was part of the ring of bike thieves. I’m sure of it now. It all makes sense.”
“So Peter was part of the ring of bike thieves. Sally figured it out, Peter killed her, but Sapphire Sam saw?” Cat asked, and I nodded.
“Exactly. I’d be willing to bet Sapphire Sam headed down toward the police station, since he was seen rushing that way, but Peter caught up to him and killed him.”
“But why did he move the body to behind the cupcake shop?”
“To throw people off the trail! After all, Sapphire Sam would have had no reason to have been down that end of town if he had just seen a murder and was going to go report it. Remember the boxes that were on the ground outside the alley? There was a large bike box that didn’t belong. We just wrote it off as someone being too lazy to go to their own dumpster, since that happens all the time, but what if it was the box Pete used to move Sapphire Sam’s body without anyone noticing?”
Cat nodded slowly. “Ok, yeah, that makes sense. I can see it now.”
“So we’re going to go in there, and confront him.”
“Got it.”
“I also texted Chase, but I told him to give us a few minutes with him. If we can get Peter to admit everything to us before he’s arrested, it’ll make Chase’s case stronger.”
Cat grinned. “That sounds like a plan Chase will absolutely not be down with.”
“Probably not, but at least he knows where we are,” I replied.
“Ok, let’s go do this,” Cat said, and we made our way through the door of Pete’s cycles. As soon as we walked in, Pete, who was working on a bike at the back, looked up at us and grinned.
“If it isn’t my two favorite Calliope family members,” he said, and I held back a shudder. We’d just arrested his girlfriend and almost arrested him, and here he was acting like absolutely nothing had happened. He was truly a psychopath. “What can I do for you?”
“You can tell us where Sally Wentworth’s body is, for one thing,” Cat said, crossing her arms across her chest, and a frown of confusion crossed Pete’s face.
“What?” he asked.
“We know you killed her, and Sapphire Sam saw you. You killed him, too. All because Sally figured out that you were stealing bikes. We’ve figured it all out, and we have proof it was you. So you may as well just tell us where her body is to give her family some closure.”
Pete looked at us for a few seconds, and I was sure he was going to deny everything. Then, all of a sudden, he picked up the bike he was working on and threw it at Cat and me before darting to the back of the shop.
I let out a small yelp, but thanks to Sirona’s work on my back I was able to move deftly underneath the bike as it passed over me, and Cat stepped to the right to get away from it.
“He’s running!” she called out as she followed after Peter, with me fast on her heels. I knew I should have texted Chase what was going on, but there was no time. We had to catch Peter.
The doorway Peter passed through led to a small storeroom at the back, and as we made our way there I noticed an exit door just closing shut as we entered. “That way!” I said to Cat, who nodded and sped toward it. As we made our way outside, bursting through the door like Batman making a grand entrance, we found ourselves on a concrete path that led on one side back around the side of the building. About four feet away, directly in front of us, was a two-foot-high wall that backed onto the forest, through which Peter was now running.
Cat and I jumped over it and gave chase. “Stop!” Cat shouted, pulling in front of me. I supposed all that mountain biking she did meant she was in better shape than I was. All the same, Peter was pulling away even from her. I pointed to a branch about fifteen feet in front of where Peter was currently standing, and let my magic do the rest. Luckily for us, my ability to use magic was back! The branch cracked and fell directly in front of him, missing him by inches.
Still, to avoid being hit, Peter had to stumble backwards for a second, nearly losing his balance, giving Cat enough time to catch up to him. She ran toward Peter as I darted forward to try and catch up to them, and Cat didn’t stop as she reached him, evidently intending to tackle him to the ground.
At the last second, however, Peter saw Cat coming and instinctively ducked, sending Cat flying over the top of him. She let out a squeal of surprise as she hit the ground and didn’t move.
“Cat!” I shouted, making my way toward Peter. I wasn’t about to let him get away after hurting my cousin. I just hoped Cat wasn’t too badly hurt. If she was, I didn’t know what I’d do to Peter, but it wouldn’t be pretty.
As I ran toward him, Peter turned to run away once more. When he realized it was no use, that my momentum meant I was going to catch up to him faster than he could run away, he stopped and turned toward me, standing his ground. His eyes darted to a branch on the ground and he picked it up, intending to use it as a weapon against me.
I could feel the energy inside of me pick up as I began to imagine myself with immense strength; Peter might have had a chance against me if I was just a normal girl, but my magic meant I could totally go all Rocky on him and win, if I did the spell right.
When I was about ten feet away, however, there was a loud crack from somewhere else in the forest, and a spurt of red shot from Peter’s shoulder. He let out a yell and dropped the branch, falling to the ground while clutching his shoulder.
I stopped looked around, wondering what on earth had happened, when a second later Chase darted out from behind a tree, his gun at his side.
“Are you ok?” he asked.
“I am, but I’m not sure Cat is.”
“Go take care of her, I’ve got him,” Chase said, and I nodded and ran to my cousin.
“Cat! Cat!” I said, kneeling down next to her. Her eyes were closed, and I was afraid to really shake her in case she had a bad injury, but she murmured something at the sound of my voice. “Cat, wake up!”
A couple of seconds later her eyes fluttered open. “Ugh, my head hurts,” she said. “What happened?”
“You tried to tackle Peter and he kind of got the better of you,” I replied. Cat tried to sit up, but I forced her back down. “No, not yet. You need to be looked over by a professional.”
“I’m fine,” Cat argued, swatting my hand away. She sat up slowly and held her head. “My head hurts a bit, but I think that’s all. Did you get the bastard?”
I nodded. “Chase shot him.”
“Chase? How did he get here?”
“I don’t know,” I replied honestly. “He kind of just appeared out of nowhere.” I looked up and saw Peter was now sitting upright, his hands behind his back, while Chase pressed down on the wound with one hand and spoke into his radio with the other.
I sat with Cat for a couple of minutes until two EMTs came by and took Peter away, taking care of his wound. As they led him off I saw the glint of handcuffs behind him; Chase had obviously arrested him. A minute later he came over to where we were sitting.
“How is she?” he asked.
“I’m fine,” Cat replied. “Don’t worry about me.”
“There’s another ambulance coming, she should get looked at.”
Cat rolled her eyes. “My head hurts a little bit, it’s nothing serious.”
“You never know. If you hit your head, I’m absolutely going to insist that you go to the hospital to get checked out.”
Cat looked over at me for support, and I shrugged. “So
rry, I’m on his side on this one.”
“Of course you are. Traitor,” Cat replied.
“How did you know we were here?” I asked, and Chase smiled.
“You do realize I’m not actually awful at my job, right? When you texted me that you were coming here, I immediately made my way over since there was absolutely no way you should be doing this on your own. I saw the bike on the floor of the building, made my way to the back of the shop and saw the tracks leading into the forest. I followed them and cut around when I saw what was happening with you and Peter so I could get a clear shot with no chance of hitting you. And on that note… what on earth were you thinking? He could have killed you!”
“He had no weapon,” I replied. “And what happened to Cat was kind of a freak accident.”
“Freak accident or not, if the two of you hadn’t tried to take him down on your own, it wouldn’t have happened at all!”
There was no way to get out of this without admitting to Chase that Cat and I had a significant advantage over Peter. And, I had to admit Chase had a bit of a point. Even with magic, Cat was now sitting on the ground holding her head in her arms, probably suffering from a concussion at best.
“Yeah,” I replied. “Sorry.”
“Next time this happens, you absolutely, one hundred percent wait for me, ok?”
“Next time this happens?” I asked. “You mean you’re not going to tell me to butt out of your investigations anymore?”
Chase sighed. “I’ve come to the realization that just isn’t working out very well. If you’re going to do it anyway, I may as well just try and limit the damage to you.”
“Aww, you know me so well,” I said with a smile, leaning automatically forward into Chase’s arms. He enveloped me in them, then leaned down and kissed me.
It was like fireworks exploded between us as our lips touched. Chase grabbed me and pulled me closer toward him as I leaned into the kiss, closing my eyes to enjoy his taste more.
Death Quixote (A Paranormal Cozy Mystery) (Magical Bookshop Mystery Book 4) Page 12
